QUESTIONS 

ON 

COMMUNITY PROBLEMS 



























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Questions on Community Problems 


Prepared by Research Workers of the 
Student and Industrial Committees, 
War Work Council, National Board of 
YoungWomens Christian Associations 


New York 

THE WOMANS PRESS 

1919 






Copyright, 1919, by 

The National Board, Young Womens Christian Associations 
of the United States of America 
New York 


SEP -4 1919 

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Introduction 

—- 

This list of questions was prepared as a guide for persons wish¬ 
ing to study industrial problems in any local community. Through 
the courtesy of the national Y. W. C. A. Student Committee, under 
whose auspices the questions were originally prepared, and of the 
national Industrial Committee who have given permission to reprint 
these questions from their Industrial Notebook, the questions are 
herewith made available for general use and have been annotated 
with various suggestions concerning how the data they call for may 
be obtained. 

Before you try to analyze the industrial conditions in your com¬ 
munity, get a clear idea of: 

1. The geography and topography of your town. Have a map, if 

possible, or make a rough one to aid your thinking. Locate 
on it (a) residence section and character thereof; (b) busi¬ 
ness sections (stores, banks, etc.) ; (c) social agencies 

(schools, churches, asylums, institutions, Y. W. C. A., Y. M. 
C. A., War Camp Community Service, etc., playgrounds, 
parks and other recreation facilities) ; (d) industries; (e) 
transportation routes with distances. 

2. General facts like population (men, women, children; native 
and foreign-born; number who work, in town and out of 
town, and if possible the number who work in various fac¬ 
tories, department stores, etc.). See latest statistics of cities 
in your state reports; also U. S. Census, 1910, and Census of 
Manufactures, 1915. Your librarian and secretary of Cham¬ 
ber of Commerce will help get these facts. Local newspaper 
editors usually can help too. 

3. Check your list of local organizations with the list of “Social 
Agencies” by Eleanor L. Lattimore, issued by the City Com¬ 
mittee, National Board, Y. W. C. A., 600 Lexington Avenue, 
New York City. Have you a community council? Study 


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your local directory, telephone directory, business directory, 
advertisements in local newspapers; also most recent town 
history. Consult your librarian and Chamber of Commerce 
secretary. 

4. Remember that if any of these questions deal with matters 
you are unfamiliar with and on which you cannot get satis¬ 
factory information from local sources, you can always get 
information or directions as to where to go for information 
from the Research Section, Industrial Committee of the War 
Work Council, 600 Lexington Avenue, New York City. 

SEEING OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE US 

1. What industrial or agricultural interests affect your en¬ 
tire community? 

Ask secretary of local Chamber of Commerce, Business 
Men’s Club, Board of Trade, banks. Consult city directory 
and classified section of telephone book; also librarian. 
Take trolley, auto or pedestrian trip through community 
noting factory signs. Are the industries grouped in any 
way, e. g., along river, in valley, on hills, near railroad? 
Are they in one section or scattered? Why? 

2. To what extent was the employment of women increased 
during the war? 

Current Annual Report of Board of Trade, etc., year 
books of various firms, newspaper files. Has any local 
survey been made? Business men can comment. Factory 
managers can probably tell you of other factories beside 
their own. 

3. To what extent were men replaced by women? 

Best known to factory management, though possibly 
also available through organizations referred to under 
question 1 above. 

4. How has the armistice affected the occupations of 
women? How many are out of work? How many have 
transferred from war to peace industry? 


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Same as in 1, 2 and 3 above. Consult also local branch 
of U. S. Employment Service. 

5. How do the minimum and maximum wages of women 
compare with the minimum and maximum wages of 
men? 

See schedules of legal wages for various industries as 
listed by State Labor Department, Industrial Commission 
or Minimum Wage Commission in certain States. Is there 
a wage law in your State? How far do local industries 
live up to the law? Whose business is it to keep track of 
whether they live up to it? A rough idea of wage rates 
may be gained through conversation with employes, trade 
union officials and social workers in your community. 

6. Is “equal pay for equal work” an actual practice in your 
community? If not, why? 

Compare evidence from various sources as in 5. 

7. Does the minimum wage received by a working man in 
your community provide for maintaining both worker 
and family in health and comfort without the labor of 
mother or children? 

In other words what is the cost of living in your com¬ 
munity and how does it compare with legal or actual mini¬ 
mum wages? Study the various standards of living in 
your community and their several budgets. Consult Con¬ 
sumer’s League, charity organizations, pastors, social 
workers, union officials for facts. How many laborers’ 
widows are receiving pensions from the State or assistance 
from charitable organizations? How many children leave 
school early to take up wage-earning? Why? Consult 
State Pension Reports; also School Reports concerning 
working papers granted last year. How many mothers in 
your community go out to work part day or regularly? 

8. Does the minimum wage for women provide only for the 
woman herself or for her dependents as well? (More 
than half of the working women in our country carry 
heavy financial responsibility). 


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Make a study of the number of dependents of all the 
wage-earning women you know of. How many have de¬ 
pendents? How many and how old are the dependents of 
each? How largely has the war increased the number of 
these dependents? Has any agency in your community 
studied this? How about school-teachers? How many 
married women work? How many young girls contribute 
to family income? Are these girls living with their families 
or are they sending money home to them? 

9. Does the minimum wage make any provision for: 

A. Decreased earning capacity due to illness, old age, 
accident, unemployment? 

B. Contingencies? 

C. Recreation and vacation? 

D. Study? 

E. Good citizenship? (Participation in community ac¬ 
tivities. ) 

Analyze budgets that you know of. Compare with legal 
minimum wage. See budget commission in “Legal Recog¬ 
nition of Industrial Women” by Lattimore and Trent, 
Chapter 5. What do items A, B, C, etc., in this list cost 
in your community. 

10. What are the arguments against night work? How many 
women in your town work at night? What do they do 
in the day time? 

If you cannot get the facts for this from agencies listed 
in 1, 2 and 3, watch factory workers going to and from 
work. Ask Y. W. C. A. or Y. M. C. A. industrial secre¬ 
tary. Ask pastors, ask the women themselves, ask school 
or district nurses. 

11. Compare the working day for women in your com¬ 
munity with the eight-hour-day standard of the Federal 
Government. How much overtime work is indulged in? 
How much time do workers spend in going to and from 
work? 


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What factories do women work in? Watch lights in 
their windows at night. When do the whistles blow? How 
long noon-hours have they? Where do these women work¬ 
ers live? How do they travel? Study map of your trans¬ 
portation system. Travel on the cars at rush hours; count 
the workers and see how far they each travel. 

12. What are the physical handicaps under which women 
work? Are there industrial hazards, such as monotony, 
poisoning, strain, fatigue, etc., to which women are more 
subject than men? 

Study in detail the processes in your community. 
What is the raw material used? What happens to it at 
each step of its manufacture? If possible, see it happen. 
Librarian can refer you to books on industrial processes, 
machinery, etc.; also on industrial hazards for any par¬ 
ticular industry. See industrial moving pictures showing 
process. Write the American Museum of Safety, 18 West 
24th Street, New York City, for their literature on industrial 
hazards. Write industrial departments of big life insur¬ 
ance companies for pamphlets on industrial poisoning and 
the prevention of industrial diseases. Write your state and 
city health or industrial department for safety-first pamph¬ 
lets. The U. S. Bureau of Mines issues a good first-aid 
pamphlet published in several foreign languages as well as 
English. City health departments and county health offi¬ 
cers have been publishing health literature, some of which 
is particularly useful among industrial workers. Some 
colleges and state universities have made special studies 
along this line; also the U. S. Public Health Service of 
the Department of Labor, Washington, D. C. 

Have you read the reports of Dr. Alice Hamilton’s in¬ 
vestigations for the Government printed in the Monthly 
Labor Review of the U. S. Department of Labor? (This 
is usually on file in any public library and in any Y. W. 
C. A. having an industrial secretary). Have you read 
“Fatigue and Efficiency” by Josephine Goldmark, and “The 
Human Machine and Industrial Efficiency” by Frederic S. 
Lee? 


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13. What provisions have been made for protecting the 
health of women workers in your community by: 

A. State industrial laws? 

B. Local factory welfare work, safety appliances, etc.? 

C. Community ordinances and agencies? 

A. Consult library or write your State Labor Department 
or Industrial Commission. 

B. Talk with welfare workers, district nurses, management 
and workers themselves. Read descriptive handbooks 
published by Chamber of Commerce or individual 
plants. Read advertisements for workers. Ask U. S. 
Employment Service (local branch). 

C. Read your city ordinances. Know the purpose, plans 
and activities of each organization in your community 
including the Department of Health and the schools. 

14. Make every effort to understand, through personal con¬ 
versation, outside of the factory, with workers and fac¬ 
tory representatives, the conditions of work in the plants, 
such as: cleanliness, ventilation, fire protection, lighting, 
sanitary arrangements, etc. Visit a factory on invitation 
or when proper arrangements have been made, always 
recognizing that such a visit is welcome only when the 
visitor has a constructive contribution to make, and that 
it is never justifiable when she enters merely as an in¬ 
quisitor. 

Published advertising matter, reports, etc., as in 13 (B) ; 
sometimes advertising films; see also the plant newspaper 
or magazine. 

15. Do the laws in your state conform to the standards of the 
War Labor Board and those under which the government 
war contracts were awarded? They are as follows: 

A. Adult labor (child labor under 14 prohibited). 

B. Wages. 

a. The highest prevailing rate of wages in the indus¬ 
try which the contract affects. 


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b. Equal pay for equal work. 

c. Those trades where there is no wage standard 
whatsoever shall be placed in the hands of an ad¬ 
justment committee. 

d. That all wages be adjusted by this committee 
from time to time to meet the increased cost of 
living and that other wage questions be submitted 
to it. 

C. The eight-hour day. 

D. One day’s rest in seven and suitable rest periods dur¬ 
ing work. 

E. Prohibition of night work for women. 

F. Standards of sanitation and fire protection. 

G. Protection against over-fatigue and industrial dis¬ 
eases. 

H. Prohibition of tenement house labor. 

I. Exemption from the call into industry of women 
having small children needing their care. 

J. Exemption from the call into industry of women two 
months before and after childbirth. 

Get copy of Labor Laws from State Labor Department 
at your State Capitol,—usually on file at library or in any 
local Y. W. C. A. See also “Laws Affecting Women in the 
Various States” (maps and key for making them) pub¬ 
lished by The Womans Press, 600 Lexington Avenue, New 
York City). 

16. How many women in your community are employed in 

household service? 

17. How many have transferred from war industry to house¬ 
hold service? 

Employment office may have these facts. Has church or 
any other local organization made a recent canvass to find 
out? What does the city directory or last local police 
census show? Does anyone really know? 


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18. How do their wages, hours and working conditions com¬ 
pare with those of the women in industry? 

19. What types of girls enter household service? 

Make your own analysis here. 

20. What, specifically, are the difficulties in this field of in¬ 
dustry, both from the point of view of the household di¬ 
rector and from the point of view of the household 
assistant? 

Talk with both women who employ helpers in their 
homes and with the helpers themselves. Talk with women 
who go out by the day. Ask Y. W. C. A. Ask employ¬ 
ment office. 

21. What opportunity for training for household service does 
your community afford? 

22. What efforts are being made in your community to solve 
the problems connected with household service? 

23. Note what information is available in your community 
as to experiments along this line which are being made 
in other communities. 

Canvass all likely agencies, schools, etc., in your com¬ 
munity. 


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